Rugby World Cup: Gregor Townsend expects change and admits Scotland fans are right to be disappointed

Gregor Townsend believes there will be changes made within Scottish rugby to improve the development of young players after Ireland exposed the gap between the two nations in a one-sided match in Paris on Saturday night.

The 36-14 defeat saw Scotland eliminated from the Rugby World Cup at the pool stage while Ireland will go on to play New Zealand in the quarter-finals. Despite the result, Townsend believes his current squad has good strength in depth but expressed concerns about the lack of players coming through at senior level from the under-20s.

“I think we’ve got really good depth at the top level,” said Townsend as he picked through the aftermath of a hugely disappointing match at the Stade de France. “The [lack of] numbers is not a new issue for us, we’ve always got far less numbers than the [other] teams so the importance is we get 30-40 players who can play Test level and that we continue to deliver on that. I’d say the last two or three years when you look at our age-group rugby and also the amount of young players who are playing at pro level, that could be an issue if those players aren’t coming through.

“There are a lot of discussions within Scottish rugby about how we do that better. I’m sure we’ll see changes or a renewed focus where we have to create better opportunities for our younger players. Because if you look at Saturday night’s team, Rory Darge, Ewan Ashman, Ollie Smith all played together in the under-20s team in the last game before Covid in 2020. That is a pipeline for us. They are now Test players so it is important that we keep priming that pipeline and doing all we can to give these players opportunities to come through.”

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend at the Stade de France in Paris where Scotland lost 36-14 to Ireland and were eliminated from the Rugby World Cup. (Picture: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

The concern is that the pipeline has become blocked. The Scotland Under-20 side were relegated from the World Rugby U20 Championship and had to play in the second-tier U20 Trophy in July alongside the likes of Kenya, Hong Kong and Spain. The young Scots were expected to win it and gain promotion back to the top tier but lost to Uruguay and were consigned to another year in the Trophy tournament. Ireland, by contrast, have a robust system in place where strong school teams feed into a provincial academy programme which supports their four professional sides. Their national under-20 and senior teams both won Six Nations grand slams this year and Andy Farrell’s side have topped the world rankings for the past 14 months. Townsend admitted that there was a lot Scotland could learn from Ireland.

“What are they doing that we can add to our game?” he asked. “We are fresh out of a meeting with the players when we were talking about those very things. We have to learn how we can be better and learn from the number one team in the world.”

Townsend, who has now presided over two World Cup group-stage exits with Scotland, extended his contract in May and his new deal runs until April 2026. He said it was “hypothetical” when asked if he would like to take Scotland to the 2027 tournament in Australia. “I am not contracted to the next World Cup, I am contracted for the next couple of years so we will see what happens in these next couple of years. Lots can happen during that period,” he said.

He intends to appoint a permanent attack coach after the role was filled by Pete Horne and Brad Mooar on a consultancy basis during the World Cup. Both are contenders. “Absolutely,” said the head coach. “Pete has been outstanding as a young coach coming in for the Six Nations, working on a couple of areas, he’s now grown and evolved to take on more responsibility. He has been brilliant to work alongside.”

Townsend said the World Cup campaign, which saw Scotland lose to South Africa as well as Ireland and beat Tonga and Romania to finish third in Pool B, would now be subject to a review process. He said that he understood that fans would hurting after the match in Paris which was effectively over by half-time as Scotland went in at the interval trailing 26-0 in a game they needed to win by eight points.

“Yes, supporters were right to be disappointed, right to see the scoreline and think, ‘this is not Scotland, this is terrible’. We get that. We feel so disappointed we were not able to make it a more competitive game and that hurts us as well as it hurts our supporters.”

Townsend will not work with the players again until January when preparations begin for the Six Nations. Scotland are then expected to tour North America in summer 2024 which is likely to be an opportunity for a lot of younger players.

There were a number of retirements after the last World Cup but Townsend has urged senior players like WP Nel, 37, and Richie Gray, 34 to play on.

“I hope there are no retirements after this World Cup,” said the coach. “I think some of the older players in our squad have been some of our best performers. WP Nel is physically in the best shape of his life, he’s started more games for us this year than he ever has and he’s played really well. I thought Richie Gray was one our best players, if not the best, on the field on Saturday night. His physical ability is excellent but also his desire to keep going at the opposition was great to see. So they are two of our older players and we obviously hope they are still available for the next couple of seasons.”